127 - Pieces of the Broken Glass Slipper
Shattered Glass Slipper Shards 127
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A moment later, the child swallows hard and asks me,
“Are you really a Lady, Sis? You’re not, are you?”
Blan frowns beside her and nudges Arina’s shoulder—probably telling her to watch her mouth—but she stares at me with a desperate look.
With a small sigh, I answer, “Yes, I am.” The child’s face contorts miserably. Her trembling eyes are filled with confusion, fear, and betrayal.
And why wouldn’t they be? Her sister, whom she thought was a maid, is actually a Lady of the mansion! If I were Arina, I would have felt a great disappointment as well.
“…How? No, why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you deceive me?”
I swallow another rising sigh and gesture to Blan. She looks at me and Arina with a reluctant expression, then barely manages to move her feet and opens the door to leave.
“Come closer. Quickly.”
Arina hesitates for a moment, then walks towards me. I reach out my hand and wave it slightly up and down. My palm, facing the ceiling, is slightly curved as if waiting for someone else’s touch.
The child stares at my hand for a moment, then bites her lip slightly. And with an almost resigned expression, she places her small hand on top of mine. The skin that touches is frozen stiff from the bitter cold.
I cover Arina’s hand with my other hand. And slowly, I continue to speak.
“Looking at your face, I think I know without you saying anything. Meeting you in the garden was purely coincidental. But the reason I went to find you with bread afterward was because I liked you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me honestly?”
Lost in thought for a moment, I don’t answer right away. I was wondering whether to answer the child as ‘Lady’ or as Sissae.
Of course, either choice would hurt Arina, but at least the difference in how much of a ‘line’ was drawn would be clear, so there would be no room for misunderstanding.
“You would have run away if I had. I didn’t want that.”
Was she pleased with Sissae’s answer? The child’s face brightens noticeably. What is trying to burst out of her parted lips is a kind of ‘expectation.’
“You, you didn’t want me to run away? So you pretended to be a maid? Like you pretended to be a prostitute in Mother’s restaurant?”
“Yes.”
“Th, that’s a relief. I thought you, no, Lady, were deliberately deceiving me… sob.”
I bite back a bitter smile at Arina’s innocence. I feel a sense of relief at her attitude of easily dropping her guard with just a few words, but at the same time, an indescribable bitterness washes over me.
I felt ridiculous for having thought of tens of thousands of excuses in my head to persuade the child.
So I said to the child in a gentle, scolding tone.
“You shouldn’t do that. What if I had lied? Why do you believe me so easily? I deceived you from the start. You should have been a little suspicious.”
“Why shouldn’t I? Can’t I trust you, Lady? Why?”
Her pure question, without a single speck of doubt, leaves me breathless. I quietly stroke the child’s head and say in a whisper.
“Yes, you’re right. You should trust me. Why not…”
Having been shocked by my identity for only a moment, Arina quickly regains her vivacity. This is a surprisingly willing acceptance, but there is also a certain amount of resignation.
So I could easily hear why her life had become more difficult than before. And what kind of situation the child was in.
According to the child, her father was carrying water at another noble’s house when he accidentally stepped on a flower that the Lady of the house cherished, and was severely beaten. So he was bedridden and barely drinking medicine.
“It’s because of me. I fell and spilled all the water. So I was late arriving than usual because I had to fetch more, so Dad, in a hurry, went a different way than usual and then…”
According to the healer they had struggled to bring in, he could walk even if he was a cripple if he took the medicine well. Otherwise, he would never be able to leave his bed for the rest of his life.
After a long deliberation, the father and daughter decided to borrow a large sum of money, one Silver coins, from a bar they knew well to use for the medicine.
“Mother died giving birth to me when I was young. So I’m the only one who can earn money. What kind of work will I be doing here?”
“You’re not going to work here. You’ll be doing it outside.”
“Yes?”
Arina tilts her head as if she can’t understand. She means, why is she saying something different when she called her here to work at the Halberd family?
But I had no intention of letting the child rot here. If it becomes known that she is related to me, she will surely be harassed by Margo, and I felt Arina was too good to be placed under Marie. That’s not why I called her here.
Above all, I didn’t want this small hand to be ruined by hard labor.
“It’s simple. You can play outside as much as you want, and when the promised time comes, you come into the mansion and tell me the interesting stories you’ve heard. Then I’ll give you twenty Copper coins and a basket of bread every two weeks. How about it? Of course, I’ll take care of the medicine your father needs separately.”
In fact, I wanted to give her Silver coins, but this was too much money for the child to handle. If the rumor spread that a young child was carrying Silver coins while her father was unable to move, I certainly couldn’t guarantee her safety.
So I said I would give her Copper coins and bread. Even twenty Copper coins was enough to buy groceries for two weeks, so it wasn’t a bad deal.
The child was more concerned and happy about the fact that she would be given her father’s medicine separately than about receiving the money. The quality of the general medicine that could be made in the market and the medicine bought from the Halberd family was as different as heaven and earth.
“Is that really all I have to do?”
“Yes.”
Arina’s eyes swell up with tears and she instantly sheds large tears. A sorrowful cry that couldn’t even be heard was flowing down her cheeks.
“I’ll pick out only the interesting stories to listen to and come back. I really will.”
Occasionally, Ladies who were tired of boredom would hire humorous clowns or old storytellers to hear rumors from the streets.
Unless it was a special occasion like Founding Day, there was no better way to fulfill their romance of not being able to freely wander the streets—places they felt were dangerous.
Arina seemed to think that I had hired her to satisfy such interests as well. She soon wiped her wet cheeks with another hand that wasn’t being held and smiled brightly.
“Thank you, Lady.”
I may never hear her call me ‘Sis’ again, but should I still be glad that I met the child?
I shook my head with a bitter smile. She’s going to bring me stories that aren’t much different from anything else and proudly tell me about them.
Therefore, there will surely come a day when she will risk danger to hear an important story. Even if I try not to do that. Because you never know what might happen.
And what kind of expression will I have when I make such a request?
“Lady?”
Arina calls me with a puzzled expression. Awakened from my reverie by the sound, I told the child what she needed to know in a calm voice.
“Come find me around 4 o’clock every three days. I’ll probably give you a heads up from now on, so you won’t have to wander around like today. And if you meet other people, you have to say that you’ve become my little storyteller. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Then go back now.”
I bent down and kissed the child on the cheek. And I whispered that I would see her in three days.
The child had a surprised expression on her face at my lips that had landed on her cheek. But soon she smiles brightly and nods her head greatly. And she left the room with a vigorous step.
Whether it was because the Crown Prince was doing a good job as a shield, or for some other reason, I don’t know, but even the day after I got out of bed, I didn’t hear Mother and Roena telling me to go to the ball.
It was clear that Mother was still uncomfortable with me, but it was so unexpected that Roena was staying still that I even had quite suspicious thoughts.
Lady Roshan, who said she would be with me from the next day, was also quiet. I felt strange about the behavior of the people who were acting as if they had forgotten me.
Anyway, it’s a rare moment of freedom. I slept in without being disturbed by anyone else and got out of bed with a somewhat dazed feeling.
Most people had left for the Founding Day event, so the mansion was quiet. The only people left were a few knights, Seril, and the maids and servants doing chores.
“Marie and Blan definitely promised to be back before you woke up, Lady…”
Seril said with a somewhat embarrassed expression, as if making excuses. Her face showed a slight resentment towards the two women who had not returned until late afternoon.
I yawned and waved my hand. And I gently asked Seril, who was pouring warm tea, how the thing I had mentioned before was going.
In fact, Mlang, Roena’s head maid, was among the cards I could use right away, but I intended to leave her until the very end. So it was important to make a new person my ally.
“Yes, one person has been borrowing money from me, but she’s not exactly trustworthy, so it was difficult for me to tell you.”
“It’s okay. Even a trivial story will be helpful. If she asks why she wants to know so much about Roena, tell her that it’s hard to endure being under my viciousness and that she wants to go back to Lady Roena.”
“Lady, don’t say such things. Because I’ve never thought that way.”
Seril says with a pale face. She was trembling noticeably, as if she thought the words just now were testing her. Her frightened face is reminiscent of an old donkey.
Ah, who could have imagined that Seril, who was more worried about Roena’s future than her own safety, would change like this?
I barely suppressed the laughter that was about to burst out and said, “I’m telling you to pretend.” Seril seemed relieved only after hearing my answer.
“I told you I trust you. So I’m telling you to pretend. You can do that, right? I’m worried because Marie has been acting so selfishly lately, so you have to do well. I’ll say it again, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy what Marie is enjoying now. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes? Yes, that’s right.”
“Now, will you leave? I want to be alone. When Marie and Blan come back, tell them I’ll see them tomorrow.”
“What about dinner?”
“I don’t feel like it. The cup of tea you just poured is enough.”
“Yes.”
The difference between Seril and Marie was that she didn’t argue with my words well due to her perfect obedience. If it had been Marie in front of me now, she would have nagged and insisted on doing things her way.
Seril carefully tidied up the surroundings so that I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable even when I was alone, and then quietly left the room with a bow.
Left alone, I sat on the sofa and slowly drank all the tea in the teacup. I was smiling to myself at the pleasant comfort of how long it had been since I had been drinking tea while staring blankly ahead without any thoughts.
But that was only for a moment, and I put the teacup on the table and got up from my seat. And I moved towards where the Capsa was. It was because of one memory that flashed through my mind.
I knelt down in front of the large chest and quietly reached out my hand. Suddenly, my fingertips were trembling and my chest was so stuffy that I couldn’t breathe, but I bit my lip tightly and pushed the lid open with force.
Inside, a Floral Crown that had just begun to wither was nestled inside. It was the very one that Sir Lustewin Halberd had forcibly placed on my head when he was drunk the other day.
